Obamateurism of the Day

posted at 8:01 am on September 20, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

On Monday, I noted that Barack Obama reacted to the assassination of a US Ambassador — the first in 33 years — not by going back to the White House to demonstrate leadership, but to Las Vegas to raise money. Some might object, saying that Presidents can conduct their business anywhere, with all the resources at hand on Air Force One when they travel. That ignores the very real and helpful emotional signal it sends when a President is seen to be taking charge, but as Mark Thiessen reported for the Washington Post, Obama didn’t exactly immerse himself in his day job, either:

How long had it been since President Obama attended his daily intelligence meeting in the lead-up to the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Egypt and Libya? After all, our adversaries are known to use the anniversary of 9/11 to target the United States.

According to the public schedule of the president, the last time the Obama attended his daily intelligence meeting was Sept. 5 — a week before Islamist radicals stormed our embassy in Cairo and terrorists killed our ambassador to Tripoli. The president was scheduled to hold the intelligence meeting at 10:50 a.m. Wednesday, the day after the attacks, but it was canceled so that he could comfort grieving employees at the State Department — as well he should. But instead of rescheduling the intelligence briefing for later in the day, Obama apparently chose to skip it altogether and attend a Las Vegas fundraiser for his re-election campaign. One day after a terrorist attack.

Why not? According to a White House spokesman, Obama doesn’t need briefings, because he’s so danged smart:

“As I’ve told you every time you ask, the President gets his PDB every day,” Vietor told me by e-mail, adding this swipe at Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush: “Unlike your former boss, he has it delivered to his residence in the morning and not briefed to him.” …

Vietor’s reply is quite revealing. It is apparently a point of pride in the White House that Obama’s PDB is “not briefed to him.” In the eyes of this administration, it is a virtue that the president does not meet every day with senior intelligence officials. This president, you see, does not needbriefers. He can forgo his daily intelligence meeting because he is, in Vietor’s words, “among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet.”

Truly sophisticated consumers of intelligence don’t see it as a sign of weakness to “be briefed” by the experts. Most of us, if we subscribed to a daily report on, say, astrophysics, would probably need some help interpreting it. But when it comes to intelligence, Obama is apparently so brilliant he can absorb the most complicated topics by himself in his study. He does not need to sit down for up to an hour a day with top intelligence officials, or hold more than 100 “deep dives” in which he invites CIA analysts into the Oval Office and gives them direct access to the commander in chief to discuss their areas of expertise. Such meetings are crutches this president does not need. Written briefings, questions and comments are enough. Obama has more important things to do — such as attend Las Vegas fundraisers.

Well, he is the Light Bringer.

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

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The hubris and self-absorption of Obama defy belief. Not one statement out of Obysmal’s mouth in prepared speeches or off-the-cuff demonstrates this incredible intelligence and grasp of details that his sycophants insist are self-evident.

He can forgo his daily intelligence meeting because he is, in Vietor’s words, “among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet.”

Which translates into the fact that he’s dumber than a bag of rocks and doesn’t understand a word the briefers are telling him. Narcissists like the rat-eared bastard don’t like being caught in their own stupidity and an IPad doesn’t judge.

Carnival Carney found Thiessen’s findings “hilarious” on the day before Stevens was murdered.

When Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen and the Government Accountability Institute reported that President Obama has attended less than half of his Presidential Daily Briefs (PDBs) on intelligence, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney called the findings “hilarious.” The next day, U.S. Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens and three American staff members were murdered.
According to Mr. Carney, Mr. Obama doesn’t need in-person briefings because the president gets the written version on his iPad:
“He gets it every day, okay? The President of the United States gets the presidential daily briefing every day. There is a document that he reads every day when he is not — well, he always reads it every day because he’s a voracious consumer of all of his briefing materials.”
But now, in an apparent 180-degree reversal, the White House official calendar shows that for the last four days Mr. Obama has ditched his iPad and has instead opted for the live briefings.
That’s a good thing. As Mr. Thiessen explains, the live briefings are far preferred over the written daily intel reports, because they offer presidents and their advisors an opportunity to drill down into intelligence threats and to challenge assumptions. “This process cannot be replicated on paper,” says Mr. Thiessen.
Still, Mr. Carney owes Mr. Thiessen an apology. Carney said Thiessen’s report was “hilarious” and flippantly dismissed the need for Mr. Obama to attend live intelligence briefings. Then, after four Americans were murdered and Mr. Obama’s foreign policy approval rating plunged, Mr. Obama has now decided to actually start showing up for his daily presidential intelligence briefings, just as Mr. Thiessen urged him to do.

I’d be willing to bet $$$ that he mostly skims it most days and ignores it more often than not. I would also be willing to bet that the programers/uploaders of his iPad actually knows this by way of tracking “key stroke/screen taps”. I would love for that info to make it’s way to the light of day.

It’s also telling that The Won’s admin hasn’t been able to set up Intel briefings for Gov Romney, yet. I guess they don’t want Mitt to be better informed than the Pres.

JimK on September 20, 2012 at 8:22 AM

The scumbags don’t want it known that while the world collapses around us, President Bark is impatiently waving it all off and demanding to know when his next fawning interview with E! is going to take place.

Romney would probably crap his pants to see how things really are out there, and so would we.

One of the purposes of the intelligence briefings is to allow and encourage ALL attendees to be up to date on the latest intelligence and its meanings, including minority opinions. That gets all departments, including State, DOJ, and Homeland Security on the same page. Of course, when you are an ex-professor of harvard law (the most intellligent person in the country) you don’t need everybody on the same page – as seen in the disarray of the current administration. Ya know, the obamassiah could solve most of his disarray problems with a 30 – 60 minute meeting every day. Nope, only dumb conservatives do that.

How stupid does Obama and company really think the American people are???

Re: the PDB —

“he has it delivered to his residence in the morning and not briefed to him.”

Every President since Kennedy, when the PDB started in 1961, has had it delivered in the morning to wherever the President was “residing” on the morning of that day…White House, on vacation, wherever.

It is a brief…not a simple news sheet…and since Kennedy got the first one it is in that cross communication wherein lies the true value of the PDB…questions asked, more details provided or particular items highlighted immediately [often primary area officers or analysts accompany the PDB if there is a particular hot-spot that requires focus] so the president fully understands the importance and so the folks back at the Agency can do detailed follow-up on a Flash or Immediate basis so that by the end of the day, if not earlier, any questions or concerns expressed by the President (and other principal recipients) can be answered.

If Obama is merely getting yet another printed, folded and stapled (in a nice binder, BTW) PDB each day and it is tossed on his desk or placed in his in-box….then the putz is misusing or not using the PDB process at all.

This would indicate Obama not understanding the process, or refusing to do so, or not caring about the process, or maybe that the rank amateur in the White House would rather catch up on the most recent hoops scores, polling data, the progress of his new $25 million mansion on Oahu or which rapper is having the next big bash…

Such is also a grave security risk…the PDB started out as an “Eyes Only” document and was chaperroned closely…not just left in an in-box.

If Tommy Vieter [source of the quote, above] is somehow proud of the fact that Obama doesn’t need to be briefed, that Obama can merely absorb the info in the PDB via osmosis, apparently, then Vieter needs to be fired from the NSC immediately…along with every other intel-connected member of the White House staff.

They, by their actions or lack thereof, are placing all of us in grave peril….willingly.

Obama recently cautioned Romney to not jump the gun…to wait until all facts were in and all that stuff regarding Libya….yet, the facts were plain sicne day one of the Benghazi fiasco…it was a terrorist attack formulated by AQ-Morth Africa, and not, as the White House held for days, a mere “protest” that got out of hand.

Yet, Obama jumped the gun by saying to all who would fawn upon his every word that some You Tube video was behind the attack…

Sure, Barry, yep…smartest guy in the room? Really?

This, from a president who said the police acted stupidly, stated that if he had a son he’d look like Treyvon, and a host of other premature ejaculations of that sort since he has been camped out in the White House.

Smartest guy in the room? Maybe if he is at a nursery school or infant day-care center…and even then, he’d have a challenge.

You h8ters just need to realize that earflaps can handle incidents like these by reflecting back upon his years upon years of military, logistical, and international relations experience which was attained while he, uh…. rode in the choom wagon. And doing coke, when he could afford it, in Manhattan.

Friends of Obama are buying a huge mansion on the north shore of Oahu for the Obama’s that will be ready for occupancy in January. Can’t have them homeless now, can we?

Even Obama insiders are concerned that Obama is not only not going to win, but may lose by a noticeably large margin.

Check the realty circuits in the DC area and also in home states of key members of this Administration. There is buzz out there. Not the kind one would see if the principals were intending on being DC for another four years.

I’d be willing to bet $$$ that he mostly skims it most days and ignores it more often than not. I would also be willing to bet that the programers/uploaders of his iPad actually knows this by way of tracking “key stroke/screen taps”. I would love for that info to make it’s way to the light of day.

D-fusit on September 20, 2012 at 8:32 AM

Well, we do know that he can read. His use of the teleprompter to speak to a sixth-grade class proves that. But as to actually reading that PDB- I’m guessing he looks at the headers gets bored quickly and shifts over to the ESPN site so that he can look super smart when picking those NCAA Men’s basketball brackets or opining with the “pimp with a limp” about the NFL.

If the empty suit didn’t know how to use an iphone, how do we know he can use an ipad? My guess is that none of the WH staffers involved in nat sec know jack or squat about the subject, and now we know no one involved has our back.

“Breitbart News has learned that the State Department hid the identity and nationality of Blue Mountain Group, the British firm it hired to provide “no bullets” security at Benghazi, in the federal contract it signed with that organization in February 2012.

Breitbart News obtained a copy of the official summary of the contract by performing a search at the Federal Procurement Data System website, a link provided by Wired.com’s Danger Room.

Blue Mountain Group was not identified as the vendor in that summary of the contract. Instead, the vendor was listed under the vague term “Miscellaneous Foreign Awardee.”

Incredibly, the vendor contact address on the contract — 1275 First Street, NE, Washington, D.C. is not the office of Blue Mountain Group, but is instead the office of the Regulatory Secretariat Division of the General Services Administration of the federal government. The phone contact listed in the contract is of an office number for an employee of the GSA…”

It will be nice to actually have a president who knows he has a day job and that he had better damn well do it. It’s like Obama is George Castanza in that episode of Seinfeld (I think it may have been titled “Bizarro Wordl” or “Do The Opposite” or something) where George decides that he would do the exact opposite of what his instinct was telling him, and that everything worked better for him, especially with regards to wooing women.

The Israeli Prime Minister, whose country is under threat of Iran making a usable nuclear bomb, wants to see him, and an ambassador and three others are killed at the Libyan embassy, and our embassy in Cairo is also under seige – no, gotta go to that Vegas fundraiser, go on Letterman, and go to that other fundraiser with JayZ and Beyonce. I cannot cancel or reschedule any of these more important appointments.

It’s unfathomable that we could have elected a guy who is even more narcissistic than LBJ was. Too bad he’s more narcissistic than LBJ. If he was only just as narcissistic as LBJ, he would have enough respect for the American people to know he should not run for a second term. This goes way beyond negligence. It’s malevolence. Hopefully, enough of the electorate – at least the ones paying attention, are experiencing the same level of blood boiling as I have. I can’t wait to vote for Romney. This is disgusting and unacceptable.

he is, in Vietor’s words, “among the most sophisticated consumers of intelligence on the planet.”

OK, everybody, all together now, let’s finish this sentance:

“And he’s BLACK!”

crazy_legs on September 20, 2012 at 8:54 AM

I read that quote and get a different message. Obama ATE the intel reports! No where do they say he reads them and comprehends them, he simply consumes them. He really has absorbed the spirit of dog from his Indonesian experience…and snake as well it seems.

The Egyptian government “asked for his release,” an administration source told The Post — and Rep. Peter King (R-LI) confirmed the request is being considered.

The White House, State Department and Justice Department each issued statements denying any deal is in the works, but, “There’s no way to believe anything they say,” said Andrew McCarthy, the former assistant US attorney who prosecuted Abdel-Rahman. “I believe there may already be a nod-and-wink agreement in place.”

I had over 25 years on active duty and I ALWAYS asked my subordinates to explain pretty much everything so I couldn’t be embarrassed later on. I would have considered a dead subordinate much worse that embarrassing.

Is there any proof that he actually reads the info on the iPad? D-fusit on September 20, 2012 at 8:32 AM
Two reasons we know he does not read the ‘iPad’:
1. His personal iPad is actually an Ipad.
2. He can’t see hImself in the technologically advanced glass.

There used to be a mid-level exec where I work who claimed it was a waste of time to sit in cross-functional meetings, and expected the minutes/synopsis to be emailed to him. He claimed he got everything he needed from those emails. Did you notice that I said “used to be”? It doesn’t take long to realize that someone uses a dodge like that just to be lazy, and also is so incompetent that they don’t want it discovered during such meetings.

So, really, he’s so dang smart? How successful was it in the case of the 9/11 attacks on those embassies that the so-dang-smart Oslacker didn’t have live intelligence briefings? Really, how well did that work out? Anybody wanna ask the families of those 4 embassy employees who are no longer with us what they think?

Why doesn’t the so dang smart one cut his losses now and take the Mooch and his daughters and move into that $35 million beachfront estate in Oahu that Penny Pritzker is attempting, none too successfully, to raise funds to purchase for their post-prezuhduncial retirement that they’re planning to move into in January.